LocalRamu for Reliable Local Service Providers in Real Time

Reliable Local Service Providers in Real Time with LocalRamu APP

Gone are the days when we had to check with our neighbors if they knew any kitchen appliance service provider or where the best carpenter could be found or which pandit would be available at the right time for some puja. Thanks to LocalRamu mobile application for making us independent with a solution to connect with all home service providers whenever we wish.

“Whether you need an electrician, plumber, carpenter, beautician, home tailor, pandit, photographer, laundry, water delivery, vehicle repair, gadget repair and likes, LocalRamu will connect you with local service providers within 1 km radius of your location. And you get required services at your doorstep within a few minutes or as per your convenience without going out and knocking on neighbours’ doors.”

Bangalore-based Santosh Tyagi from small town Agra is the founder and CEO of LocalRamu mobile application. He says, “We have designed a solution to cater our customers in the best possible way. ‘You name it, we have it.’” While talking about how LocalRamu was ideated, he says, “It is a result of the problems I used to face and I wanted to provide a solution to people like me.”

Santosh Tyagi cited two instances from his life when he badly felt the need of some easiest solution at his fingertips to connect with repairing service providers. Once his bike got punctured and he had to push his bike for almost three kilometers to a shop. Once there was a short circuit in his organization and no one was able to work due to power disruption. No local electrician was available for immediate service. Finally an electrician came to their rescue after a few unproductive hours. Thus he thought of LocalRamu as the next big thing in the Indian market.

A graduate from National Institute of Engineering in Mysore, Santosh Tyagi always believes that technological innovations can make daily life easier. LocalRamu, a mobile based hyper local marketplace for home related services, is a testimony to his belief. At the same time, it benefits those service providers by giving them a platform or medium to get business without any publicity or branding.

Focusing on how different or unique his startup is, Santosh Tyagi says that the USP of the product is their approach towards developing the application to maximum benefits of both end customers and registered service providers. “For each and every category, we have two local service providers in 1 km radius. Once a user books the service, a nearby service provider registered with us on successful verification will reach at his / her place in a couple of minutes.” Our motto to improve the lives of individual service providers by generating business for them in a world where there is no branding or advertising for them is another driving force to push LocalRamu beyond limits.

How is LacalRamu ahead of a few similar applications in competition? LocalRamu is empowered with an efficient functioning model to ensure quick and reliable service to customers. Other start-ups in the same niche are not as efficient as LocalRamu according to its founder and CEO Santosh Tyagi. LocalRamu adds to the database of local service providers only those who go through a multilevel verification process.

“Our startup business model is an interface between B2B and B2C. We keep upgrading the business model from time to time in order to improve the application further and make it more user-friendly. Our business model is somewhat similar to the Ola Cab business model when it comes to assigning jobs to our service partners,” shares Santosh Tyagi.

“Santosh Tyagi believes that challenges are blessings in disguise. At the initial phase of LocalRamu, it was very challenging for him to convince local service providers how his application would benefit them and why they should join LocalRamu. Another big challenge was to train them on how to use the application and how to ensure customer satisfaction.”

He gave an example to be precise. One of the service providers in the water delivery category refused to register with us initially. Our team approached him three times. Then Santosh Tyagi personally met him and convinced him. Just in two months of his registration, the water delivery man got business deals worth over 1.5 lakh rupees through LocalRamu. Since then, perseverance and patience in convincing and training new service providers have been the ways for the LocalRamu team to overcome such challenges.

Where does LocalRamu stand today in the third month of its launch in March 2016? Santosh Tyagi ebulliently shares that there are on an average 100 service requests a day. It has not yet been three months since the launch that the growth is two times more than the expectation. “We have not flexed marketing muscles to push the product into the market. We spend more on product development than marketing. Our reliable, quick and affordable service is reaching out to more and more customers through word-of-mouth marketing,” says Santosh Tyagi.

It requires vision and mission to keep a business on rolling wheels for an uphill journey. Santosh Tyagi is on a mission to partner with 10K service providers in the next few months. His vision is to tie up with grocery stores, bakeries, flower vendors and others. Seed funding from three investors including two in Bangalore and one in Singapore is supporting the mission and vision of LocalRamu.

LocalRamu is currently operating in Bangalore and available for download on Android mobile devices.

Startups generally celebrate every small reason, But if the reason is about a milestone achievement then it makes a big difference. This victorious path is not an easier one and we have faced and surpassed many challenges in the last few months to meet our target of half a million visitors. While our ambition is a much bigger number, the target we achieved was planned towards the end of the financial year and our team made it possible 4 months in advance.

Indeed a great effort by Shishir Kumar and the entire team and a special thanks to the avid readers of IndianCEO for following us. IndianCEO is indeed my first bet in to media business and believe me this is just the beginning. Early next year we have some great product announcements and our next milestone is not far away.